Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Founders' Day - The Shifting Sands of Time

The Pink Heart Society is delighted to have one of our illustrious founders - Nicola Marsh - here with us, talking about what she's been getting up to over the last eight years...

I can’t believe it has been 8 years since my Harlequin Romance buddies Trish Wylie, Ally Blake, Natasha Oakley and I kicked off the Pink Heart Society.

We were wide-eyed newbies punch-drunk with enthusiasm and the awe of seeing our beloved creations on shelves around the world. And trust me, that feeling of awe never gets old. Now, 50 books later, what have I learned?

I’ve learned:

That my kids bring me the greatest joy in the world.

That seeing them through kidney scans and echocardiograms and pneumonia is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

That all I want out of life is for them to grow up healthy and happy.

That helping a husband deal with the loss of family and friends is tough.

That financially supporting a family is stressful, that it pushes you to take on too many deadlines, that it makes saying ‘no’ a rarity, that it means you need to be flexible and informed and stay abreast of the publishing game.

That it’s okay to walk away from contracts when life gets in the way.

That if you push yourself for a decade, your body eventually says stop and you have the kind of year I’ve just had, with numerous hospital visits, scans, MRIs, CT scans, blood tests, an operation, repeated shingles…

That it’s scary seeing your income halve when e-readers take over the world.

That it’s challenging embracing a new digital world.

That it’s exciting seeing your income rise again after taking the plunge with self-publishing.

That it’s terrifying turning down contracts from traditional publishers in favour of going indie.

That social media is a time suck and while chatting to fellow writers is fun, it’s probably not going to get your next book written or sell a ton of books.

That my football team, the North Melbourne Kangaroos, is way overdue to win another premiership.

That I still watch the entire DVD box set of Sex and the City at the end of every year as my way of winding down from writing.

That researching hot actors online is a definite perk of my job.

That receiving fan mail can make my day.

That reading bad reviews is like driving a stake into my foot.

That winning awards is the ultimate validation. I’ve been lucky enough to have finalled in many awards, and to win several, including a 2013 RBY (Romantic Book of the Year) for Marrying the Enemy (Harlequin) and National Readers’ Choice Awards for Marrying the Enemy in 2013 and Scion of the Sun in 2014 for Best Young Adult novel.

That selling over 5 million copies worldwide means nothing when I stare in trepidation at that blank page before starting to write a new book.

That branching out into new subgenres, like young adult and new adult, flexes my creative muscle.

That writing is still my dream job and I’m still pinching myself all these years later that I get paid to work in my pajamas.

That I will continue to evolve and embrace the challenges of this ever-shifting publishing world.

I think it’s wonderful the PHS is still going strong after all this time.

Makes me so proud to see that little pink heart dude still jumping around to his own romantic tune. Congrats PHS! Nicola Marsh's latest title is self-published title Crossing the Line:

Laying it all on the line for love…

Mia Cresswell is tired of being good.
Achieving geek status at college doesn’t equate with fun. So when
she heads home to her dad’s tennis academy in Santa Monica on spring
break, she’s determined to be bad. And hot Aussie tennis star Kye
Sheldon is just the guy to help her do it.
However, Kye’s troubled past continues to dog him and attending the
Cresswell Tennis Academy is his last chance at the big time. He can’t
afford to screw up…by screwing the boss’s daughter.
But Mia and Kye’s relationship is much more than a vacation fling.

Will it be game, set, match, when the truth is revealed?
Or will Mia and Kye have a real shot at love all?